Introduction
One of the books that lingers in the background of the mission driving Achievement Factors is Our Kind of People, by Lawrence Otis Graham. It lingers because it presents a way of looking at the world that is discordant with the one I’m trying to foster with these efforts. I’ve touched on the book in a previous post, but I raise it again because as of this writing, Fox has just broadcast a second episode of a show that they named after it. In the eponymous show, two Black families are set in contrast to each other on Martha’s Vineyard, a residence for many and a vacation island for many others in Massachusetts. The fictitious story the show attempts to tell draws from the elitist themes of the original book, but wraps them in so much social dysfunction it might snuff out the light of self-discovery that the original book can kindle.